Data processing systems contain various objects. Examples of objects include application programs (such as word processing programs), documents (such as the electronic representation of this specification) and temporal based objects. Temporal based objects include those objects that have data or a data stream that is presented over some duration of time. Examples of temporal based objects include audio objects and video objects. An audio object has a data stream of speech, music, etc., that is presented to a user through a speaker. If the object is a video object, then the data stream is presented to the user over a video monitor. A video object may also include an audio component that is presented to the user by a speaker. Unlike the presentation of a document on a computer screen, where the presentation is static (except for scrolling), the data in the data stream of a temporal based object is presented to an output device at some rate of time. This allows for dynamic presentations of information.
The availability of temporal based objects is becoming more widespread. For example, with the advent of electronic distributions, such as electronic mail, temporal based objects can be distributed to a plurality of users.
These temporal based objects can be long in duration. Often times, there is only one segment that is of interest to a recipient user. Static objects, such as a textual document, can be skimmed by a user to find the segments of interest. However, temporal based objects are not easily skimmed for content. Therefore, a recipient user must view or hear more of the object presentation than is necessary.
Thus, it is desirable to tailor the presentation of a temporal based object to the needs of a recipient. The needs of a recipient can frequently be assessed according to the context of the presentation of the temporal based object. For example, the originator of a temporal based object that provides a meeting notice may wish for one segment of the object to be presented to a calendar user (that is, a user who receives a presentation of the object through a calendar application on the user's data processing system), while another segment of the same object to be presented to an inbasket user.